24 hours
by Aphrodite876
Summary: Nick literally falls for a young new intern and is forced to play doctor as she refuses to go to the hospital for a concussion. His determination to remain professional with her is beginning to waver.
1. Falling

This is the first fan fiction that I have ever written so any reviews or advice or words of encouragement that you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

**_24 Hours_**

_I don't own anyone here but me! Nick, Greg, and anyone else I fancy using is from CBS's show CSI._

_Romantic pairing: N and OC_

**_Part 1_**

He just got to work and he's making his way down the hall. A closed minded determination in his walk. With a furrowed brow and a gaze that's lock on to some unknown object in front of him, he continues towards the locker room. The past few weeks have been hard on him and now, to make matters worse, he has to come into work with a black eye. It was the other guy's fault. All Nick did was defend himself, but he knew Grissom wouldn't care. He'd only see that Nick was in a bar fight. As yesterday progressed and Nick ran through the different ways to explain his appearance and actions, his frustration mounted. Nick knew his recount wouldn't matter to him. "If Grissom won't care regardless of what I tell him, then I don't give a damn about anything!" He said to himself in his southern drawl.

His angry pace quickened the closer he got to the locker room door. All he wanted to do was put his helmet away and get to work. He has a helmet now because he bought himself a motorcycle a few days ago. Always enjoying a rush, he has wanted one for a long time. After nearly dying… again, he found no reason to postpone the purchase any longer. Leaving his Tahoe at work for when he needs it in the field, he now rides his bike back and forth to work.

Nearly at the locker room's doors he's practically jogging. Just as he rounds the corner he slams into something and comes tumbling down on top of it. "Opf! Jeez, what the…!" The soft form that his body was now on top of began to struggle a little under all his weight. Hastily, he began to get up. "Watch where your…" the rest of his warning fell off as his eyes locked on a set of deep brown ones. "Are you alright?" his tone was soft and gentle, because his 'I hate the world' attitude melted away somehow. Lately, she was the only one who seemed to have that power over him, to change his mood and forget his anger.

"Yah, I think so," came her soft and very winded reply. "I'm sorry I was reading these read outs wasn't paying attention. Are you ok?"

He barely knew anything about this young, new intern, besides the fact that her energetic and outgoing spirit brightened his day. She always had some little sarcastic remark for him to end a conversation that would leave him with a smile. Because she was new and didn't know what happened to him, he felt a strange sense of security around her. Everyone else acted like he was glass, while she didn't treated him any differently. He watched her joke and laugh with him the same as she did with Warrick and Greg. For some reason he felt like his old self again, whenever she was around.

"Nick? If you wanted to be on top all yah had to do was ask," she teased. Seeing her smirk, made the corners of his mouth turn up. Suddenly pulled back to reality, he realized he needed to get off of her. After getting up he looked around to gauge the extent of damage he inflicted. He laid her out flat and sent her papers flying everywhere because they now littered the hall. A moan escaping her lips caused him to glancing back at her. Her hand over her face made him realize the source of her pain, which made him worry.

"Greg!" he bellowed, seeing the young CSI strolling down the hall. "Get someone to pick up these papers and grab me some ice." Redirecting his attention back to his sore intern, "Come on, darlin'." After draping her arms around his neck, he lifts her up off the floor. The conk on the head must really be hurting her, as she buried her face in his neck to douse the light. In his strong arms the feeling of safety was inevitable, and her tense body relaxed as he carried her into the locker room.


	2. Deal

**_24 Hours_**

_I don't own anyone here but me! Nick, Greg, and anyone else I fancy using is from CBS's show CSI. _

Romantic pairing:_ N and OC_

**Part 2**

Claire sat on the bench and endured the probing. The ice pack was doing very little to alleviate much throbbing but she held it gently against the back of her head. Going from complete darkness and silence, to booming voices and a flashlight in your face, sure tortures your senses. A mighty big aspirin was being pictured in the near future. Nick's concerns were touching but they were quickly becoming annoying as Dr. Al Robbins continued his examination.

"Everything seems to be fine but I think you might have suffered a mild concussion," he gently stated. Doc was one of the first people who befriended her when she got here and he smiled at her now in reassurance. "It's nothing to worry about though. After some more tests and maybe an x-ray, they'll just tell you not go to sleep for the next 24 hours. And not to operate any heavy machinery," he added with a wink. She liked Al. He was very nice to her, but it was still a little unnerving being examined by a coroner, and in addition to that he mentioned hospitals. Bring up that building provoked an involuntary shudder out of Claire. She hated hospitals.

"Look, I feel fine. I don't need to go to the hospital for a bump on the head. If I have to stay up for 24 hours then I will, but no hospitals. Alright? Now can I get back to work?" with imploring eyes, she glanced over at Grissom.

Grissom was called in around the same time Greg went to fetch for Doc. His apprehensive gaze seemed to lighten at the sight of her eagerness, yet his parental expression was already showing through. He didn't even have to say anything. Claire could tell she wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "I think you better take the rest of the day off and tomorrow too. I tell Sara or Catherine what's happened, I'm sure one of them will stay with you to make sure you're alright. Their case has gone cold anyway. I'll page one of them now and have them take you to the hospital before taking you home."

Damn. She wasn't getting out of this one. As he pulled out his phone and began to dial the number, a thought came rushing into her head. "Wait! They can't do that their case is hot again." Grissom wasn't the only one that held a puzzled expression, as all the men in the room were now looking at her. "I had a hunch and did some investigating." Shuffling through the papers that had been stuffed back into her folder, she finally found the one she was looking for. "When I dug into their history a little further, I found out that the two of them were taking part in a fertility clinic. Mrs. Craughwell is pregnant."

"I don't see how this seems relevant," Grissom added, but he looked intrigued. He stood in front of her biting onto the ear piece of his glasses., waiting for her to continue with her theory.

"They just had tests taken. Sara and Catherine brought the results back to the lab, when they brought in the Craughwells garbage."

Seeing the photo Claire pulled out to illustrate this point, Grissom remembered seeing the crumpled piece of paper in the evidence collection. "Yes Catherine was going to look this over at the beginning of shift."

"Well actually Sara and her went out to followed up a different lead, so I looked it over. Then once I saw that this was the results of the Craughwells fertility test…" She let the sentence fall off as she handed Grissom the next photo of the evidence. Nick, Greg, and Dr. Robbins were all intently listening to the unfolding theory with great curiosity. "Mrs. Craughwell's prints were the only ones that I lifted off the results so Mr. Craughwell didn't know he was sterile. But his pregnant wife knew. And if she thought that her husband was going to force her to give up the baby once he found out…" She decided that that was enough explaining and sat back against the locker. The cool metal made her shiver a little.

Grissom's grin was board and amusing, "You did very good." He put all the bits and pieces of evidence back in the folder and tucked it under his arm. "I'll let them know what you found. Nick, you take her to the hospital and have today and tomorrow off too. Someone need to stay with her and make sure she doesn't fall asleep the next 24 hours. You look like you could use a day off anyway." Nick turned his face away slightly in a small attempt to hid his black eye. With a final grin of goodbye to Claire, Grissom strolled out of the locker room at a determined pace to track down Sara and Catherine. A moment or two later Greg and Doc followed suit. Leaving only Claire and Nick in the locker room.

"I'm sorry," Claire mumbled.

"Why? It was my fault. I should have watched where I as going. It only makes sense that I'm the one that looks out for you now. I always take responsibility for my actions," he smiled at her lightly. She could tell that it probably hurt him to do so with his black eye. He made his way over to her and took a seat on the bench in front of her.

She reached out and cupped the side of his face in her hand. With her thumb barely making contact with his skin she brushed it over purple, swollen skin. "I hope I didn't hurt you too much."

"What? This? No. You didn't give me the black eye. I got this last night," he didn't want to tell her how so he shook his head and looked away from her curious gaze. "Just handled a disagreement the wrong way."

Deciding not to pry any further, Claire stood and turned to gather her things from her locker. "I trust Doc's opinion, do we really have to go to the hospital? It's just a bump, if I stay up there wont be any problems," She implored Nick.

"Alright. But if you think you can't stay up any longer and it hasn't been 24 hours yet, I'll drag you to Desert Palms. I don't care how much you fight me."

"Deal!"


	3. Checking out

**_24 Hours_**

_I don't own anyone here but me! Nick, Greg, and anyone else I fancy using is from CBS's show CSI. _

Romantic pairing:_ N and OC_

_Part 3_

Nick knew better than to argue with her. She defiantly had a stubborn streak that he found both adorable and frustrating. "Alright, what kind of movie do you want?"

"Anything. I'm not that picky when it comes to movies. That's why you're going to get it." She gave him a small smile and winked at him, "but I need my kind of junk food, if we are going to do this."

With one last stitch effort he thought he'd try to talk her out of this again, "Look I already told you, I have stuff at my place. You don't need to buy anything."

With a sigh she let him finish his plea, "But you see, you have the junk food tolerance of the average American. While I need much much more to have a proper sugar fix and I'll need extreme amounts of caffeine if you possibly expect me to stay awake for 24hours." With a wave of her arm in the direction of the video store she finished, "Now go get a movie." With a final little smirk at him she turned and headed toward the back of the grocery store.

Nick stood there for a moment and watched her leave with an orange shopping basket draped over one arm. Her bouncy, curly brown hair moving in rhythm with each step. His eye traveled down her well shaped athletic body, until he forced them to stop. _Stop it man! What are you thinking! She's way too young for you._ But even with the thought of her being close to ten years younger than him, he couldn't help his gaze and finished his scan of her long legged form.

With a shake of his head, he brought himself out of the trans the he found himself in and made his way to the adjacent video store. After making his way to newly released section of the store he looked over what they had. Nothing really looked that appealing. He started thinking about what she would like to watch. He knew only a little bit about her. She was passionate, adventurous, determined… Action movie?

Might as well stick to a classic. He found the area that stored long forgotten action movies and chose one of his favorites. After making his purchase and strolled back into the grocery store to find Claire checking out. "Jeez- don't tell me you plan to eat all that?"

"Don't be silly, I'm expecting you to help me a little," she grinned and paid the casher and collected her bag.

Nick couldn't help but smile in response and gave her food choices a second look. Popcorn, chocolate, chips, pretzels, cookies, ice cream with various toppings, and several favors of caffeine filled pop. Suddenly he remembered his early observation of her. Her tight, trim build. "How do you stay in shape with a diet like that!"

The comment must had come as a complete shock to her, because she broke her stride toward the front of the store to stop and stare at him. Nick had to glace backwards to met her focused eyes. Just then she smirk and raised an eyebrow at him, "Since when have you taken notice of my shape?" He stood there staring at her with color rushing to his cheeks. His slightly ajar mouth offered no answer. Seeing his reaction to question she merely smiled and walked past him and out the front doors of the store. "Come on Nick, this ice cream is going to melt."


	4. Games

Part 4

"What do you want to do until the Pizza gets here?" They had unloaded the groceries but decided to order some real food before indulging into a sugar run. "We could start the movie, but I don't like interruption and we'd have to stop it when the food gets here."

"What movie did you get?" she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to ask. His small revelation in the store had dashed the question from her mind. She was still a little on edge knowing that he had looked at her like that, but to her credit she was hiding it well.

He grinned and retrieved the tape from it's plastic bag, "A classic." He stated pulling it out to present to her, "Die Hard."

She let out a squeak of a laughter, "Die Hard!"

He watched her amusement to his purchase with some confusion. "Well you didn't expect you to get some fluffy chick flick now did you?"

"No, I didn't. Die Hard it is then. So what do you want to do until the food gets here?" A shrug of his shoulders was the only response he gave her. "Hmm…" She glanced around the room in an attempt to come up with something and to get a better look at his home. For a bachelor pad the place was well furnished and very clean. Family pictures hung on the walls. Extensive CD collection displayed near his impressive home entertainment center. But for amusement it didn't look like he had very many guests over. "Got any cards?" They were in Vegas surly he did and knew how to play a game or to.

Settling into arm chair Claire began to shuffle the deck. He watched her while he got comfortable on the couch across from her and cleared the coffee table that was between them. "What do you want to play?"

She ran threw the various games she played in college, but most of them involved betting or striping and while one appealed to her at the moment it seemed very forward. "How about speed? I played it all the time when I was a kid with my brother. We were both very competitive and it's an easy game."

"Alrighty, teach me how to play then," he sat by patently and watched her deal while she went over the rules. He was still somewhat uneasy around her now that she knew that he checked her out, despite the fact the she made light of it. He had the feeling that she liked him too. Her voice would always get a little more breathy when she was talking to him as apposed to Greg or Warrick. But girls have had crushes on him before and he thought nothing of it, there was just something about her. She was making Ihim/I feel slightly off balance. His last attempt to have an relationship nearly got him arrested, so he promised himself to take a break from the dating scene. Then Claire has to come along and stir up all these buried emotions in him. There was no denying the fact that he felt a physical attraction towards her. _What are you doing? You can't date her. She's an inter for crying out loud._ But most of his rational thinking disappeared as he tried to force himself to focus on what she was saying and his eyes caught sight of her lips.

"So really all you have to do is get rid of your cards by building up and down. And you have to be the first one done," she finished her explanation and looked over at Nick to make sure she didn't lose him. She was surprised to find him starring at her very intently but his focus was on her mouth. "Nick?"

"What?" His name snapped him back, "Right, be the first one done. Got yah. Let give it a try."

The first few games Nick lost miserably even though he could tell the Claire was taking it easy on him. That only made him more completive. After a while he started winning and that's when they both started to go all out, but they kept the mood light. He'd win a game and start laughing, while she would playfully pout. Or she would win and flash him a triumphant smile and he would give her a mocking glare. "Yah, I'll get you on this one you'll see."

"Is that a threat Nicky?" she mused.

"No. It's a promise," he smirked.

He was determined to win this round, she won the last four times now that she wasn't going easy on him. This time he'd get her. But once they started the game, he realized he'd lose. She was just to good. _In many different ways. Stop thinking that way! Why does my mind always go back to that? The game Nick. Just focus on the card game._ She was going to win for sure but he could at least slow her down. So he placed one of his cards down but kept his hand in her way. Blocking her view.

"Hey!" she growled in mock anger. "Cheater."

"Yah, well what can you do about it?" he teased her back.

Her expression shifted to a serious tone, but there was a curve at the corners of her mouth. "You should know better than to say something like that. I could so take you." He grinned broadly at the 5 foot 4, hundred and nothing, little brunette and flattened his hand out on the cards even more so. Refusing to back down, she quickly rounded the coffee table and put both hands on his chest. She effective pushed him onto his back and sat on the upper half of his legs. Grabbing both wrists she pinned him to the couch. "Ha! See, don't mess with me."

Her victory was short lived, as Nick decided to finally defend himself once she thought she had him. He easily pulled he's hands from her grasp and grabbed her hips. In one swift movement she was under him. Her wrists were being tightly held above her head with one hand by Nick. She laughed and tried to free herself, but all her efforts were in vain, as most of his body was covering hers. He was chuckling the whole time, "Care to revise your statement?"

"Ok, you win." She sighed in defeat and stopped squirming. In that instant were she relaxed, they both became very aware of the position that they were now in, and how they're faces were merely inches apart. She turned her head to face Nick and their eyes locked. The amusement she saw there a moment ago was now replaced with one of heat and something darker. His eyes flickered from hers for a moment to catch sight of her lips. She felt slightly dizzy and there didn't seem to be enough oxygen in the room any more. He leaned a little closer and their breath began to mingle. Just as she began to feel his soft lips on hers, she closed her eyes.

"BANG! BANG! BANG! Pizza delivery!"

Her eyes flew open and Nick flew from the couch. "I… I…a…" he stuttered. "I'll go get the door."


End file.
